History

In 1606, Caravaggio killed a man in Rome and went on the run to Naples. His commission called for 7 separate canvases—one for each act of mercy. Caravaggio refused. He decided to cram all 7 into a single frame. The challenge? How to do it without making it look like a mess. His solution: The Seven Works of Mercy, using real beggars and prostitutes as models. 1️⃣ Feed the hungry: A woman secretly breastfeeds her starving father through prison bars 2️⃣Visit the imprisoned: Same scene. 3️⃣ Bury the dead: A priest guides a corpse-carrying party. 4️⃣ Give drink to the thirsty: Samson chugs water straight out of a donkey’s jawbone. 5️⃣ Clothe the naked: St. Martin slashes his cloak in half for a cripple on the floor. 6️⃣ Shelter the homeless: An innkeeper offers a room to a pilgrim with a seashell on his hat. 7️⃣ Comfort the sick: St. Martin’s scene doubles up for a crippled man on the ground. Above it all? Angels dropping out of nowhere like stuntmen. It still hangs on that exact altar in Naples.

— Art Gallery (@X_ArtGallery) October 7, 2026

 

An Insight

Why men -- especially conservative men -- won't go to therapy: The weird thing about the American Psychological Association (APA) is that every objective observer has known that it's been ideologically captured by the Left since the 1970s. That's the main reason why the Association for Psychological Science split off back in 1988, to form a more-scientific, less-politicized version of APA. Yet, here we are, 40 years later -- with APA still the main accrediting body that gives its seal of approval to PhD programs that train the vast majority of licensed clinical psychologists in America. APA sets the agenda. It determines what gets covered in graduate courses. It runs the most influential journals and conferences. It sets the whole political and ideological tone for psychological research. For decades, it has pushed political correctness, 'affirmative action', wokeness, DEI, and Leftist political causes. APA also ignores, censors, and/or demonizes the psychological research areas that are politically incorrect, but that replicate well (e.g. intelligence research, behavior genetics, evolutionary psychology, sex differences). There are alternatives. For example, the Psychological Clinical Science Accreditation System (PCSAS) focuses more on the real science -- evidence-based treatments and interventions -- rather than on the Leftist activism of APA. But, for the moment, the APA's ideological agenda still dominates American clinical psychology. This partly explains the feedback loop between clinical psychology becoming so feminized (with women getting about 80% of clinical psychology PhDs), and clinical psychology becoming so radical-Leftist in its politics. And it explains why it's pretty difficult to find licensed clinical psychologists who are actually sympathetic to men, conservatives, and/or Christians. This is one big reason why men won't go to therapy -- they don't want to deal with a (probably female, probably liberal) therapist who has been indoctrinated into wokeness for 5-6 years throughout her graduate training.

— Geoffrey Miller (@gmiller) October 6, 2026

 

Offbeat Humor

Women kept sending death threats and hate mail to the wrong Winston Lee so he emailed their employers with copies of their messages lol What a stud https://t.co/WkEhAhlODx

— Kangmin Lee | 이강민 (@kangminlee) October 6, 2026

 

Data Talks

When Obama lost the 2014 midterms, he blamed it on the country's alleged racism... Race relations cratered by 21 points in just two years...and theyve never recovered. Vanity over everything. https://t.co/gNmAI6YFtO

— Andrew Follett (@AndrewCFollett) October 5, 2026

 

Railway Signalman's Cottage, 1925 by Georg Scholz

Railway Signalman's Cottage, 1925 by Georg Scholz (Germany, 1890-1945)

Click to enlarge.

History

Oct 6, 1780. London. Henry Laurens, the former president of the Continental Congress, is marched into the Tower of London on suspicion of high treason. He's the only American ever held prisoner there. Laurens was one of the richest men in South Carolina, a merchant and planter from Charleston. He'd served as president of Congress in 1777 and 1778, right through the Valley Forge winter. His son, John Laurens, was one of Washington's aides and Alexander Hamilton's closest friend. In 1780 Congress sent him to the Netherlands to try to get a loan and a treaty with the Dutch. In early September, off Newfoundland, a British warship caught his ship. Laurens saw it coming and threw his secret papers overboard in a weighted bag. It didn't sink fast enough. British sailors fished it out of the water. Inside was a draft of a possible treaty between the Americans and Amsterdam. That bag of soggy papers helped push Britain to declare war on the Netherlands that December. Laurens had accidentally helped start a new war. He was taken to London and locked in the Tower, the same fortress where English kings had imprisoned traitors for centuries. He was in his mid-50s and suffering badly from gout. He was kept under close guard, and for long stretches he wasn't allowed visitors, newspapers, or even pen and paper. He had to pay the cost of his own imprisonment, including the warders' fees. The British kept pressuring him to give up the cause. He refused. He sat in the Tower for more than a year. Then the war turned. In late 1781 he was let out on bail, and he was finally exchanged for a prisoner the Americans had just captured: Lord Charles Cornwallis. Laurens went straight back to work. He joined Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and John Jay in Paris and signed the preliminary peace treaty with Britain in November 1782. But he never got to share the win with his son. John Laurens was killed in a minor skirmish in South Carolina in August 1782, one of the last American officers to die in the war. When Henry Laurens died in 1792, he left orders to have his body cremated, something almost unheard of in America at the time. He was reportedly terrified of being buried alive.

— Echoes of War (@EchoesofWarYT) October 6, 2026

 

An Insight

Heard this today from a smart European: Europe has subcontracted security to America. Its economy to China. Energy to Russia and its labor force to the Islamists. This model now has completely collapsed.

— Mark Dubowitz (@mdubowitz) October 6, 2026

 

I see wonderful things

Imagine being at a banquet when a silver stag starts moving across the table and stops in front of you. Made in Augsburg around 1620 by goldsmith Joachim Friess, this automaton shows Diana, goddess of the hunt, riding a stag. The stag’s body is hollow, its head comes off, and the whole figure was designed to carry wine. When it stopped in front of a guest, that person was expected to lift the stag and drink what was inside. I can see why people might have laughed. But I also wonder how comfortable it felt to be the one singled out, with the whole table watching. The machine made it look like chance had chosen but someone had built the game, and everyone knew what the "winner" had to do. That’s the part I find more interesting than the clever mechanism. It turned an awkward demand into entertainment, so nobody at the table had to say, "I chose you." We still hand decisions over to spins, draws and algorithms. Sometimes that's fun. Sometimes it just makes it easier to pretend no one was responsible. Visual: AI-generated reconstruction inspired by Diana and the Stag; not a photograph of the original. Source: The Metropolitan Museum of Art https://t.co/YMPF8tj5Yq

— HerodotusWave (@HerodotusWave) October 6, 2026

 

Offbeat Humor

https://t.co/dPh1aq1PpL

— Rod Taylor 🇨🇦 (@raetay1yahoo) October 6, 2026

 

Data Talks

It's common knowledge that "almost all men are stronger than almost all women" but did you know that almost all men are more tolerant than almost all women? If you're a libertarian, a male communist will be more tolerant of your views than a female libertarian. https://t.co/UNaW2nSwUt

— Yaril Foxears (@YarilFoxEren) September 30, 2026